The Ban Fortnite in Australia petition is absolutely hilarious

Okay, so there’s a ‘Ban Fortnite in Australia’ petition that’s made its way into my IM. At first, I thought this was something legitimate but as I dug deeper, it only became funnier. Dude, seriously, this is hilarious.

Mum claims son, 10, is so addicted to online game Fortnite he is moody and aggressive – and she wants it banned (The Sun, UK)

About this particular ‘Australian ban’

The petition starts like so:

If your children love video games, chances are they are playing a game called Fortnite and it has parents and experts alarmed.

– Australia Youth and Media Protection Initiative

Also, I applaud this unsourced statistic:

Think of all the mass violence that has occurred in recent years, there has been a 900% increase in violence conducted by minors from 2000- 2015 compared violence conducted by minors from 1984-1999. This sharp increase can be attributed to the violence that our children absorb in video games.

– Australia Youth and Media Protection Initiative

Dude, I can’t contain myself at this particular line either:

…we must call upon our Government to ban Fortnite unless we want our children to be the next generation of violent convicts.

– Australia Youth and Media Protection Initiative

I’m pretty sure by the time you get to the end of the petition and start reading the comments, you’ll be confident in knowing that the whole petition is a farce.

Speaking of comments…

Yeah, someone totally signed this petition using the name ‘Adolf Hitler’. We won’t share all of the petition comments since their satire may be misinterpreted but here is my favourite one:

Andrew Biggs likes to call himself Declan on off days.

Also, I don’t know how but Declangaming24 is actually a thing… with Fortnite stuff on it.

Who is the Australia Youth and Media Protection Initiative?

This guy looks pretty reputable, eh? So legit.

Fair enough.

Turns out, it’s just a case of mistaken (stolen) identity:

Thank goodness for reverse image search.

So, yeah, another reason why you shouldn’t take this petition seriously. Poor Scott Maloney. Wait until he hears about his reputable face being used this way.

And, by the way, there’s nothing online about this particular ‘organisation’. It’s also not familiar to me as one of the usual names that pop up when it comes to banning or censoring media in Australia.

Wait, how did Dez get mixed up in this?

You know what’s really bad about this whole thing? Poor Dez somehow–we don’t know how–ended up as a petition signatory:

Derek Maggs did what now?What? Dez nooooo!

Of course, I jumped in to investigate and this is what Dez told me:

Yeah. I swear I didn’t sign up to that.

– Dez Maggs, Writer at goto.game

Oddly enough, I’ve cleared my cache several times but it seems Dez’ name and face won’t come off the petition ???? A little bit concerning but too funny not to point out.